1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steering lock system with a control knob for a vehicle, comprising: a cylinder rotatably carried in a stationary housing; a rotor relatively rotatably inserted into the cylinder and having a key hole into which a mechanical key can be inserted; and a control knob mounted on the rotor.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventionally known steering lock system, which comprises a control knob mounted on a rotor of the steering lock system in order to enable the rotor to be rotated without use of a mechanical key, when ID codes are matched in communication between a portable instrument carried by a vehicle user and the steering lock system on a vehicle. In this system, in order to prevent the erroneous operation due to the insertion of the mechanical key into a key hole in a state in which the rotor has been rotated using the control knob, and in order to enable the operation of rotating the rotor using the mechanical key, the control knob comprises: a knob body fixed to the rotor and having a key guide hole connected to the key hole; and a knob cap mounted to the knob body to inhibit the insertion of the mechanical key into the key guide hole (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-60316).
In the conventional system, however, the knob cap is detachably mounted to the knob body in such a manner that a portion of the knob cap is removably inserted into the key guide hole in the knob body, and mating surfaces of the knob cap and the knob body appear on a design face on an outer surface of the control knob. Therefore, there is no integral appearance between the knob body and the knob cap, and it is difficult to mention that this system is excellent in design, and moreover the degree of freedom of changing the design corresponding to the type of the system is narrowed.